Colorado election results: Lauren Boebert wins re-election by 546 votes, recount confirms

Freedom Caucus firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo, has won her bid for re-election against Democrat Adam Frisch, an automatic recount confirmed Monday.

The race was decided by 546 votes, fitting a pattern in the 2022 midterm elections when strong supporters of former President Trump finished with closer-than-expected margins or lost elections in swing districts.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced the results Monday evening. Frisch gained a total of four votes in the recount, not nearly enough to catch up and overtake Boebert’s lead. An Aspen City Councilman, Frisch had already conceded the race last month after the first tally put him just under the state’s margin for a mandatory recount.

“The red wave has begun!” Boebert declared on Twitter heading into the Nov. 8 election. However, as the results came in, it became clear there would be more of a red trickle. Though the GOP was favored to win Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, with Fox News’ Power Rankings listing the race as “likely Republican” as of Nov. 1, Boebert ran behind her Frisch most of the night. 

Republicans lost several key races they had hoped to win, frustrating their effort to recapture House and Senate majorities. When all was said and done, the GOP emerged with a razor-thin 222-seat majority in the House while Democrats gained a seat in the Senate. However, the Democratic Party’s would-be 51-seat Senate majority was unexpectedly snatched away by Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to switch and register as an independent. 

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“Republicans have been entrusted with the majority, and we must now prove we can take the temperature down in DC by leading not only with strength but grace,” Boebert said Sunday after the counties in her district completed their recounts. 

“Our conservative policies will help all Americans to overcome the challenges we face so each of us has the opportunity to live our very best life,” she tweeted. 

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Frisch, a self-described moderate, ran a campaign that called out Boebert for “tweeting nonsense and lies” instead of working to advance legislation. He ran against what he called her “angertainment,” saying he would not back U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as party leader and described himself as a nonpartisan problem-solver.

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Boebert’s time in Congress — she was first elected in 2020 — has been characterized by enthusiastic support for former President Trump, attention-grabbing fashion choices and controversial statements that made her a fixture of national media coverage.

She has openly feuded with progressive lawmakers, including “Squad” members Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and used her Twitter account to provoke her opponents and detractors, including moderate Republicans. 

Boebert was one of 147 GOP lawmakers to vote against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election and has openly supported Trump’s unproven claims that the election was illegitimate. 

A staunch Trump supporter, Boebert enthusiastically embraced the derogatory Democratic accusation of being an “Ultra MAGA” Republican and insisted the only way Republicans would lose in the 2022 midterms is if they “start acting like Democrats.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.